“My metaphor is that evil always has a top hat and a cape, and goodness is over there in the corner. For me it's just too easy, if you hate your country or your wife, so you kill them. You can't think through that, you can't feel through that, you can't do the work. And now we have guns. Solution? I don't think so.” IfsThinkingFeelsCountryHateEvilEasyWifeGoodnessSolutionsGunMetaphorCornersHatsHate YouCapesTop Hats Author:Toni Morrison
“The American people have to think hard about their definition of the meaning of the good life, that hedonistic, materialistic society of high levels of consumption, increasing social inequality is not a society that can be part of the solution of the world's problems.” PeopleThinkingWorldHardProblemSocialLevelsSolutionsDefinitionsInequalityGood LifeConsumptionMaterialisticHigh LevelHedonisticSocial Inequality Author:Zbigniew Brzezinski
“We could replace people with fossil fuels, have higher and higher levels of industrialization, of agriculture, of production, without thinking of the green-house gases we were admitting, and climate change is really the pollution of the engineering paradigm, when fossil fuels drove industrialism. To now offer that same mindset as a solution is to not take seriously what Einstein said: that you can't solve the problems by using the same mindset that caused them.” PeopleThinkingSaidProblemHouseLevelsHigherOffersSolutionsGreenClimateClimate ChangeProductionsSolveMindsetFuelEngineeringPollutionAgricultureFossilsParadigmFossil FuelAdmittingHigher LevelIndustrialization Author:Vandana Shiva
“I think some of these solutions are prepared in an office without a full understanding of the local situation.” ThinkingUnderstandingSituationOfficeSolutionsPreparedLocals Author:Wangari Maathai
“We could come together, Democrats and Republicans, to find practical, commonsense solutions to health care, to education, to energy issues, because although I'm a proud Democrat, I'm a prouder American. And I think all of us believe, regardless of our party affiliations, that this is a critical time, where we've got to solve big problems.” ThinkingBelieveProblemBigsCareTogetherEnergyPartyIssuesProudRepublicanSolutionsDemocratSolveCriticalPracticalsHealth CareBig ProblemsAffiliation Author:Barack Obama
“In the States, there has been, compared to the Sixties and Seventies, a huge retrenchment - not just in poetry - into the personal. A withdrawal from thinking in terms of social and collective values, needs and solutions. The consciousness-raising groups of the women's movement, for instance, becoming "support-groups" or therapy groups.” ThinkingNeedsHas BeensStatesValuesSocialTermConsciousnessSupportGroupsMovementHugeBecomingSolutionsInstanceTherapyCollectivesSixtySeventiesWithdrawalSupport Groups Author:Adrienne Rich
“Demographically, I'm a hippie from San Francisco and I'm not culturally inclined to be sympathetic to states' rights. My cultural heritage is FDR and Medicare and federal government solutions. But if you think through the analysis, strengthening state rights is a good corrective of the aggregation of an over-reaching federal power.” IfsThinkingStatesGovernmentRightsSolutionsAnalysisReachingHeritageFederal GovernmentSan FranciscoHippieSympatheticMedicareStrengtheningCultural HeritageStates Rights Author:Naomi Wolf
“The biggest fear that everybody has is dying. Not to get too meta on you, but I think every fear that people are trying to work out is really like I'm going to die and no one is going to care, and it doesn't matter because God might not exist. That's what people are trying to figure out. I wish we all had one fear so we could think about it together and figure out a solution, but we're all doing different things.” PeopleThinkingTryingDifferentMatterMightCareTogetherDiesWishDyingFiguresSolutionsWork OutDifferent ThingsBiggest Fear Author:Lena Dunham
“What is tragic today is that there is a number of Muslims who think that all the solutions are to be found simply by external actions. They don't have to do anything within themselves. This is a deeply Western idea - modern, Western idea, where you try to improve the world without improving yourself. And this is what the Muslims who talk about others putting their heads in the sand and that "We are doing jihad and we are political" and so forth, they are emulating a very important mistake of modernism.” ThinkingWorldTryingImportantIdeasTodayActionPoliticalFoundNumbersMistakeModernSolutionsWesternSandTragicImprovingModernismJihadImproving Yourself Author:Seyyed Hossein Nasr
“I think it's interesting that a lot of times people want celebrities to give back in the way that they want them to give back. They want them to give money to the cause they think is important and when that doesn't happen they say, "Oh, they're not doing anything." People think celebrities are going to solve their problems. People think because someone is famous or an athlete or a politician that the solution begins with them. All they're there to do is sell you a product.” PeopleThinkingWayWantGivingImportantProblemHappensCausesInterestingProductsPoliticianSolutionsSellsAthleteSolveGiving Back Author:Rhymefest
“I think with regards to solutions, there are solutions, and I think there is only one. we have said repeatedly to the government of the United States that we do not want anything but to forget us, that they do not consider us even for good or evil.” ThinkingWantSaidStatesGovernmentEvilForgetUnitedUnited StatesSolutionsRegard Author:Che Guevara
“In America, we are not lacking solutions. We are lacking a two-party system that is willing to agree on solutions. Part of this is due to rigid ideological positioning that substitutes for really thinking about the facts and solutions.” ThinkingTwoFactsAmericaPartyWillingSolutionsAgreeDuesSubstitutesLackingIdeologicalTwo Party System Author:Philip Kotler
“I think that education today is a form of child abuse. The natural tendency of children is to solve problems, but we try to indoctrinate them with facts, which they are supposed to feed back, and then we fail them. And that's child abuse. And you should never raise children that way. You should cultivate and encourage their natural tendencies to create solutions to the problems around them.” ThinkingWayShouldTryingChildrenFactsProblemTodayFormNaturalFailingSolutionsAbuseRaisesSolveTendenciesChild AbuseEducation Today Author:Grace Lee Boggs
“We have to think in a very different sense than the way we think now. We think in terms of quick fixes, that solutions will come out of a few protest demonstrations, and calling upon the government to do something. And we can keep trying to do that, and it won't work.” ThinkingWayTryingDifferentGovernmentTermCallingSolutionsProtestDemonstrationKeep TryingQuick Fixes Author:Grace Lee Boggs
“I think we live in slavery to fear. Most people don't have an answer to the death question and really don't even have a philosophy. That is a puzzle to me. I think even if I was not a Christian, I would want to at least have a personal solution to the death question. Otherwise, death is just a frightening thing.” PeopleIfsThinkingWantPhilosophyChristianAnswersSolutionsSlaveryFrighteningPuzzles Author:Max Lucado
“Few knew in 2000 that George W. Bush was going to end up with neoconservatives all over the place. Once 9/11 happened, I think it's fair to say that some neocons have had an enormous influence. The whole solution to every problem was to go after Iraq. This had been a neoconservative mantra for ten years. Bush certainly sees himself as having been given an endorsement. He was asked why Donald Rumsfeld,Condoleezza Rice, and Paul Wolfowitz have been promoted, these people who led us into the debacle in Iraq. Bush said there was accountability-it was the election. So there we are.” PeopleThinkingProblemInfluenceSolutionsElectionRice Author:Seymour Hersh
“Tayyip Erdogan wants to go beyond George W. Bush by making critical journalism and critics in the academy illegal. What will be the difference between him and a military government? Very little. I read his remarks on the effectiveness of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. Well, yes. But then the AKP would have to ban all other political parties, close down all critical newspapers, burn the books critical of the regime and gas the Kurds to death...the final solution of the Kurdish 'problem.' Somehow I don't think he is about to do that.” ThinkingBookPoliticalPartyMilitarySolutionsCriticsJournalismGasPolitical Parties Author:Tariq Ali
“Twilight of the Elites main thesis has been borne out far past what I could ever have imagined. The major idea was that these series of elite failures created this crisis of authority which was fertilizing distrust in the pillars and institutions of American society. In the absence of that authority there's this vacuum which is easily filled by authoritarian solutions, and I think that's exactly what happened.” ThinkingPastAuthoritySolutionsCrisisAbsenceTwilightDistrustThesis Author:Chris Hayes
“If, for some reason, I cannot bear to work on something that needs to get done, I'm not going to force that. I'll just take a mental vacation. I think the best solution sometimes to working out a problem is to walk squarely away from it.” ThinkingSometimesReasonDoneProblemSolutionsWork OutVacation Author:David Small
“Being champion for me is gratification. The realisation that I am the best. Overall, I like being a leader, setting a good example. I like being part of the solution and not the problem. I hope people think that I'm representing #1 properly. I just got to keep improving because the only person who will beat me is myself.” PeopleThinkingProblemLeaderSolutionsChampionGratificationRealisation Author:Kane Waselenchuk
“I urge people not to think in terms of "solutions," but in terms of intelligent responses to the quandaries and predicaments that we face. And there are intelligent responses that we can bring forth. But when I hear the word "solution," I always suspect that there's a hidden agenda there. And the hidden agenda is: "Please, can you please tell us how we can keep on living exactly the way we're living now, without having to really change our behavior very much?" And that's sort of what's going on in this country. And it's not going to work.” PeopleThinkingCountryTermBehaviorSolutionsIntelligentResponseGoing To Work Author:James Howard Kunstler
“I think the Barack Obama position and the majority position of American Jews and a lot of Americans is a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. Settlements get in the way of that. If they're not stopped soon, there is no prospect for that type of solution.” ThinkingSolutionsJewBarackPalestineSettlement Author:David Brooks
“With the loss of the American dollar as its own currency and its devaluation, I think that people will not even be able to afford bread and milk. They're facing a real crisis in America and I think the solution is Islam.” PeopleThinkingRealLossSolutionsCrisisIslamCurrency Author:Anjem Choudary
“Islamic laws this is something Americans should look into, maybe not in the near future, but I think people are definitely looking for alternatives to a capitalist democracy. The democracy that we find in the Western world is just not providing them solutions.” PeopleThinkingWorldDemocracySolutionsWesternIslamicCapitalist Author:Anjem Choudary
“I've taught the Bible all my life and I believe in the rights of Jews to have a place in the Holy Land, and so I have a natural affinity for that right. I believe that the right of Israel to have a place in the Holy Land can be honored by the two state solution, to abbreviate a long premise, and I think the only way to have peace is by following the basic road I've been following for the last 30 years, to try to bring peace to Israel through negotiation.” ThinkingTryingBelieveLongI BelieveNaturalHolySolutionsJewHonoredNegotiation Author:Reza Aslan
“The Democrats would want to keep the taxes. And Republicans want to do away with taxes that are driving up the costs of premiums. So, I think it would be hard to see a scenario where Democrats would be willing to come to the table in good faith and actually work with us on a solution that meets those requirements.” ThinkingRepublicanTaxesSolutionsDemocratDrivingGood Faith Author:John Thune
“The cause of misery, death, and all personal and collective problems is rooted in the mind, the false, copy mind. The real, divine mind is transcendental, the witness, without thinking. Divine mind is without thoughts, all knowing, and eternally blissful. Trying to solve problems by thinking about them never produces a permanent solution because this false mind creates all problems; whereas, divine mind and our inner guidance bring forth solutions for our greatest good and the greatest good for all.” ThinkingTryingMindRealProblemDivineSolutionsMiseryWitnessGuidanceTranscendental Author:Terry Cole-Whittaker
“We have reached a moment in our history where we think that every problem in America has to have a federal government solution. Every problem in America does not have a federal government solution. In fact, most problems in America do not have a federal government solution and many of them are created by the federal government to begin with.” ThinkingMomentsProblemSolutions Author:Marco Rubio
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.” PeopleThinkingMenHardWisdomPainEasyAnswersHalfSolutionsUniversalDivorceHardshipQuestsEasy Answers Book:Strength to Love Source: Strength to Love
“I don`t think Hillary Clinton is going to support any of the things that you stand for if you`re a Republican. I`m going to go fight for the principles and the solutions that I believe in and the candidate that I think is so much more likely to put those into law because I know Hillary Clinton won`t do that. It`s a binary choice. It is either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. You don`t get a third option. It`s one or the other. And I know where I want to go.” ThinkingBelieveChoicesFightingI BelieveSupportRepublicanSolutionsClintonBinary Author:Paul Ryan
“I have a sense of mission on this climate crisis, and I'm trying to pour all the energy I have into it. And I hope that I, along with others, can catalyze the emergence of real solutions to the climate crisis. I think we're making a lot of progress. I think we're going to win this, but it matters how quickly we win it. So I'm focused on that.” ThinkingTryingRealWinningEnergyProgressSolutionsCrisisFocused Author:Al Gore
“My opinion is that prostitution always existed and will always exist. So I think it's worth trying to give these women the best working conditions, in terms of social help and health. It's too difficult to close your eyes and say: "" Closing your eyes is not a good solution!” ThinkingGivingTryingHelpingEyeDifficultTermOpinionSolutions Author:Bertrand Bonello
“The main point is that I think if we want the Earth to survive and everybody to have a positive future, we have to stop thinking in terms of religions and races. We have to face that we are all on the planet Earth together, and we have to figure out how we all survive. It makes no sense if we are all driving hybrid cars, but China pumps massive amounts of CO2 in the air. If we don't start working together and find solutions - if every country thinks only in terms of, "First we, then the other nations" - then we will fail.” ThinkingCountryEarthTogetherTermFailingCarSolutionsDrivingWorking TogetherPlanet EarthHybrid Author:Uwe Boll
“I write a lot, poems and such, and when I look at it the next day, I can analyze what the problem is and find the solution. It's the same when I watch myself on the big screen, but first, my vanity has to go away and so I have to watch it ten times. But when it has gone, and I don't think my nose is too big and everything else, then I start analyzing, and I think it helps me to become a better person.” ThinkingWritingHelpingProblemSolutionsHelp MeGoing AwayBetter Person Author:Roland Møller
“In April 2007 I learned that Yves Saint Laurent had a brain tumor, and he died on June 1, 2008. During those 14 months I had plenty of time to think about what would happen. There was only one solution: the auction. An auction establishes memory. That's what I want to do.” ThinkingMemoriesBrainSolutionsSaintPlentyAprilTime To Think Author:Pierre Berge
“"Girly" can be limiting if you're told it's the only option. I don't think the solution is to get rid of the girly stuff or decide it's oppressive and get mad at a singer or book for not ACCURATELY REPRESENTING ALL WOMEN. There just needs to be more options for girls who don't identify with the girly aesthetic, and can broaden the idea of what being a girl means. Similarly, there needs to be more of that stuff that can be aesthetically girly, but feminist in the actual message.” ThinkingMeanBookGirlSolutionsMadFeministAestheticGirlyBeing A Girl Author:Tavi Gevinson
“I do feel that the world is entering into a period of the incredible period of reflection and introspection. A lot of people are questioning the future, and I can't help but think that's a positive thing. I'm not sure about the art world, but the design world may be able to offer some solutions. Design is about troubleshooting. As a designer, I ultimately feel like a gun for hire. Companies hire me because they've got a problem. That's kind of what it boils down to. And I think this is a moment in our history where we need different solutions.” PeopleThinkingWorldKindArtDifferentMomentsHelpingProblemDesignSolutionsReflectionGunIncrediblesNot SureDesignerQuestioningIntrospection Author:Marc Newson
“People often think of artists and scientists as being diametrically opposed, but we both believe something is possible. We have a hypothesis and then we do everything to make it possible, but we don't know if it's possible! All the scientists I've worked with have a natural, easy fit with me. The solutions they find are truly creative. All scientists, in some way, are artists.” PeopleThinkingBelieveArtistEasyNaturalCreativeFitSolutionsScientist Author:Mira Calix
“We have to think about what the future is going to look like for people. People are afraid of robotization; they're afraid of globalization; they're afraid of all these things. And Trump's solution to that is: shut the borders; America first; everything's got to be made here, which is of course, not realistic - in his own companies everything's not made here at all - but I think we have to engage in issues that do cross these demographic boundaries.” PeopleThinkingSolutionsBoundariesRealisticGlobalization Author:Michael Kazin
“I think people are really looking for some way whereby we can grow our souls rather than our economy. I think that at some level, people recognize that growing our economy is destroying us. It's destroying us as human beings, it's destroying our planet. And I think there's a great human desire for solutions, for profound solutions - and that nothing simple will do it. It really requires some very great searching of our souls.” PeopleThinkingSoulDesireSimpleEconomySolutionsProfound Author:Grace Lee Boggs
“My hope is that design thinking becomes an innovative discipline and not just the trend of the decade. As a nation and globally, we have some of the biggest problems to solve we have ever faced. We need innovative ways to solve our problems and communicating the solutions will be paramount. Original thinking, complex problem solving, and collaboration are all important skills for our future.” ThinkingImportantProblemDesignDisciplineSolutionsCommunicateCollaborationOur FutureProblem SolvingInnovative Author:Nancy Duarte
“We can't, you know, use our military to make sure the planet doesn't get warmer. And so that kind of leadership, of being able to bring people together, to apply practical commonsense solutions based on facts, based on science, based on what works you know, that's been the approach I have taken consistently as a public servant. That's the kind of style that I think we need in the presidency right now.” PeopleThinkingKindTogetherTakenMilitaryStyleSolutionsServantConsistently Author:Barack Obama
“Although there are some parallels to the problems that we're seeing now and what we say back in the '30s, no period is exactly the same. For us to simply recreate what existed back in the '30s in the 21st century, I think would be missing the boat. We've gotta come up with solutions that are true to our times and true to this moment. And that's gonna be our job. I think the basic principle that government has a role to play in kick starting an economy that has ground to a halt is sound.” ThinkingMomentsProblemEconomyMissingSolutionsBoat21st Century Author:Barack Obama
“I always think that it's important to step back and look at the facts, figure out what is big, what is small, and always target the solution and the policy issue correctly. Don't try to solve the wrong problem with unemployment insurance.” ThinkingTryingImportantProblemPolicySolutions Author:Douglas Holtz-Eakin
“It is possible in theory and I think true in practice that centralization could have been the optimal solution at the beginning of the computer era and now, but not in between. And it may change back again with some other technological development. Some things move in a straight line. Others move like a pendulum.” ThinkingMovingComputerSolutionsTechnological Author:Steven Pearlstein
“Of course, I could never suggest that only poor people are misogynistic; too many rich folk are just as hateful of women as any poor person might be. I don't know if social problems are only circular; perhaps other geometric metaphors might better describe the triangular effects of social vulnerability, political oppression, and racial disadvantage. I think you're right - we've got to focus on both analyses and solutions. And sometimes, an adequate analysis goes far along in suggesting a suitable solution.” PeopleThinkingSometimesProblemPoliticalPoorRichFocusSolutionsMetaphorOppressionVulnerabilityPoor PeopleHatefulGeometric Author:Michael Eric Dyson
“The solution for rising up kids in the income distributionlies is in creating better childhood environments for kids growing up, especially in low income families. And so what means such things like schools, the quality of neighborhoods. If you think about what's gone on in Baltimore, it's a place of tremendous concentrated poverty. People aren't really seeing a path forward and I think revitalizing places like that can have a huge impact, even in the face of globalization and changes in technology.” PeopleThinkingMeanKidsSchoolQualityPovertyTechnologyGrowing UpPathEnvironmentChildhoodSolutionsNeighborhoodGlobalization Author:Raj Chetty
“Now the masses of Latin America are electing governments they feel can take forward the democratic reforms of the last 20 years, and transform them into social and economic reforms. This is, I think, extremely important, because it also means that the left has abandoned the revolutionary solution proposed by Che Guevara and has taken the democratic path.” ThinkingMeanImportantPathTakenEconomicSolutionsDemocraticRevolutionaryLatinAbandonedLatin America Author:Carlos Fuentes
“My literary criticism has become less specifically academic. I was really writing literary history in The New Poetic, but my general practice of writing literary criticism is pretty much what it always has been. And there has always been a strong connection between being a writer - I feel as though I know what it feels like inside and I can say I've experienced similar problems and solutions from the inside. And I think that's a great advantage as a critic, because you know what the writer is feeling.” ThinkingWritingFeelingsProblemStrongSolutionsCriticismCriticsPoeticAcademicLiterary Criticism Author:Christian Karlson Stead
“I think it's a good thing that we can have relatively non-partisan political conversations because I don't think that my premier necessarily should agree with everything the federal NDP says. I don't think she should disagree with everything the federal Conservatives say. I think that Albertans and Canadians as a whole, as I always say, are looking for pragmatic politicians with pragmatic solutions to their problems, and they want the best ideas to move forward, regardless of who has that idea.” ThinkingProblemMovingPoliticalPoliticianSolutionsAgreeGood ThingsMoving ForwardDisagreePragmatic Author:Naheed Nenshi